By Cheryl Anderson
“I have touched with a sense of art some people-they felt the love and the life. Can you offer me anything to compare to that joy for an artist?”—Mary Cassatt
Mary Cassatt was an American painter born May 22, 1844 to an upper-middle-class Pennsylvania family. Notable was that she was allowed to exhibit with the French Impressionists. Evocative of Mother’s Day are her paintings of mother and child and young children. She didn’t have children nor did she marry, but she was a master at capturing a mother’s love on canvas. Chubby babies giving hugs, children at play, unspoken adoration as the mother looks into her baby’s face, and young children with looks that declare they are not particularly thrilled to be posing…many of us have seen those looks and attitude. But, even in those moments, somehow, Mary captures their charm.
She was a force for women with the belief she was a liberated woman. At that time in history, others were of the opinion that a liberated woman was the “same as a loose woman.” She was independent in life and in art. Mary lived for her work and at a young age supported herself as a professional painter. She believed in women’s liberation and contributed to the women’s suffrage movement…she gave when asked.
Cassatt’s thoughts regarding feminism and politics are reflected in her paintings. During her eight decades babies and child care were essential parts of feminism. It was her gift as an artist to evoke the relationship between mother and child. “…her sensitivity that enabled her to paint psychological states as well as the light, that allowed her to paint mothers and children in so uniquely penetrating a way.” What she saw is what she painted. She never used the term impressionist instead referred to herself and colleagues as independent. Her approach to painting was that of the Impressionists…light, color, and composition. Mary never painted still life or landscapes except when the landscape was part of her figure painting.
When she visited Paris at age seven, it was, le coup de foudre. Two years later Heidelberg was home to the family for a time. (I’ve lived in Heidelberg and it is truly a beautiful town.) Before returning to Philadelphia, the family stopped in Paris to view the Universal Exposition. At age eleven, the Exposition made an impression. At seventeen she enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. It was the first year of the Civil War. She was there for four years. In 1866, she moved to Paris to copy the Old Masters and study their works having decided that it was the best way of mastering her art. When the Franco-Prussian War broke out Mary returned to Philadelphia. Monet and Pissaro fled to London. After the war she returned to Europe settling in Parma studying Correggio and Parmagianino. One of Mary’s paintings was accepted in the Paris-Salon in 1872. She made study trips to Spain and Belgium finally settling in Paris in 1873.
“The first sight of Degas’ paintings was the turning point of my artistic life.”—Mary Cassatt
Mary became friends with Degas. It was a very significant friendship as it “sealed her destiny as an artist.” Her work was accepted by the Paris-Salon for five years, but later two works were rejected by the Salon. Degas invited her to join the Independents. She would show with the Independents going forward. Degas’ work influenced her a great deal, it’s true, but there is no evidence that there was a “romantic liaison” between them. It was more of an artistic and intellectual connection. She recognized in Degas “what she herself had been working toward” as an artist. “In turn, the older artist saw in her a possible disciple, a highly talented junior, an exotic American and yet, at the same time, a fellow citizen of the same social milieu.” In a way, as it turns out, it can be said they were made for each other. “Both believed in the art of the museums, and were mistrustful of casting themselves adrift on the moment.” Independent in how they behaved, and as it’s described by Frank Getlein, a bit quirky at times, and both were very close to their families. Mary’s family and sister, Lydia, lived with her in Paris most of their lives. It’s said, other relatives as well. “Thus, the sheer mechanics of any clandestine relationship would have been formidable, had there been the desire. We can probably assume that there was not.”
“Sometimes it made him (Degas) furious that he could not find a chink in my armor, and there would be months when we could not see each other, and then something I painted would bring us together again.”—Mary Cassatt
This painting of Sara is one of Cassatt’s most charming of children. Sara was used to posing for the artist. Peering from her poke bonnet, “…the effect of a small person cheerfully carrying a burden rather too large for her size–although certainly not too heavy for her strength. The slightly monkeylike quality of the little face very subtly brings out the contrast between the spirit of the child and the elaboration, the heaped up quality, of her costume.”
Mary Cassatt’s career continued in the United States and France.
In 1891, Bertha Palmer, a Chicago socialite, approached Cassatt to paint a mural, 12’ x 58’, in the Women’s Building for the World’s Columbian Exposition to be held in Chicago in 1893…a triptych depicting independent and accomplished women apart from their relation to men. Mary completed it over the next two years traveling between France, where she was living with her mother, and Chicago. Other paintings by Mary were also in the Exposition. In Palmer’s mind, there was no one better than Mary Cassatt to depict and bring to the world’s attention the status of women. When the fair was over the mural came into the possession of Palmer remaining so until around 1911. It disappeared after her death in 1918.
One by one she lost members of her family. Degas died in the middle of World War I. Becoming nearly blind with cataracts, sadly, she had to stop painting. Mary Cassatt died June 14, 1926. An independent American woman, an extraordinary artist that made a significant contribution to the Impressionist movement.
Mary Cassatt’s sister, Lydia, and Degas’ niece in the newly acquired Cassatt family pony and pony cart, 1879. “Lydia is new at the game, and totally attentive as she holds both the reins and whip. The Degas niece, Odilie Fèvre, seems none too certain of her own safety. The groom, besides being noncommittal , stares off in the opposite direction from the others… Each one is alone with his or her own opinion of what’s going on, and that may well have been Mary Cassatt’s intent, painting, as always, what she perceived psychologically as well as visually.”
Perhaps, Mary’s paintings will bring to mind those quiet moments you had with your children or those same sorts of moments you shared with your mother. I hope so. Mary Cassatt was able to put to canvas those quiet decisive moments when the love between mother and child speaks volumes.
Happy Mother’s Day!
À bientôt
Quotes and Pictures:
Mary Cassatt, Paintings and Prints, by Frank Getlein. Abbeville Press Publishers.
